Karnataka board launches T20 league

In its bid to cash in on the T-20 mania, the Karnataka State Cricket Association today launched the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), a state level T-20 tournament involving eight zonal teams on the lines of IPL.

Announcing this, KSCA Secretary Brijesh Patel, who is also CEO of Royal Challengers, said the association, along with Frontiers Group India, would organize the tournament.

The first edition would be played between September 12 to 27.

KSCA has called for bids for the eight franchises and the minimum bid was fixed at Rs 20 lakh.

The KSCA would form a group of 40 prominent cricketers in Karnataka and the franchises would have to pick a minimum of five from this group.

The player 'auction' would be held on August 8.

"This will be a good opportunity for the young cricketers to showcase their talent as the tournament would have live TV coverage. First the tournament would be played in the city and later we have plans to take matches to the districts," he said.

Charu Sharma, tournament convenor, said the prospective franchises could make their closed bids from July 20. Each of them could bid for three zonal teams and it would be opened on August three.